Old Djoker on show in rout
London, June 22: Novak Djokovic stepped up his Wimbledon preparations by sweeping into the Queen’s Club quarterfinals with a 6- 4, 6- 1 demolition of Grigor Dimitrov on Thursday.
The 31- year- old needed only 65 minutes to crush world number five Dimitrov and he will next face France’s Adrian Mannarino after recording the 799th win of his career. It was Djokovic’s first success against a top 10 player in just over a year and the impressive display suggested he made the right decision to play at Queen’s for the first time since 2010.
But even so, Djokovic doesn’t believe he should be expected to dethrone defending champion Roger Federer at Wimbledon next month.
“Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves too early. I’m definitely not one of the favourites for Wimbledon,” he said.
“Roger is the clear favourite without a doubt. Nadal maybe hasn’t played well at Wimbledon by his standards, but he’s won it several times. He’s definitely one of the candidates to win the title.”
FEDERER IN SEMIS In Germany, Roger Federer held off Australian Matt Ebden 76 ( 7/ 2), 7- 5 in their quarterfinal at the ATP Halle tournament. With his world number one ranking on the line, the Swiss is sparing no effort to make sure he lifts a tenth title at the event on Sunday. Failure to win the grass title would send rival Rafael Nadal back to the top spot.